The State of Science, Technology, and Innovation in Canada 2025: A Confluences Action Dialogue

President and CEO, Council fo Canadian Academies

Tijs has been with the CCA for over a decade, including the past seven years as Director of Assessments, where he has overseen more than 30 expert panel assessments. As a member of CCA’s senior management team, he has had budget and human resources responsibilities for a 20+ member team and has been key to the ongoing development of CCA’s best-in-class assessment process.

Tijs has been working at the interface of policy, science, and technology for over 25 years. Prior to joining the CCA in 2012, he was a partner at the consulting firm Hickling Arthurs Low Corporation where he specialized in public policy, public administration, and strategy in the areas of S&T, innovation and economic development.

Trained as an engineer and political economist, he brings an empirical and applied focus to his work along with a commitment to high-quality, evidence-based research made useful for the policy world. His work in industry, academia, and the non-profit sector, has spanned policy areas ranging from research and innovation, to health, environment and energy, positioning him as a thought leader in Canada’s science policy landscape. He has authored studies on innovation and governance, research policy, program evaluation and performance audits, and has served on various grant adjudication and award selection committees.

Tijs holds BASc in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Waterloo, an MSc in Technical Change and Industrial Strategy at the University of Manchester, and a PhD in Political Science from the University of Toronto.  He has been a research fellow with the Mowat Centre for Innovation in Policy, the Program on Globalization and Regional Innovation Systems, and the Innovation Policy Lab at the University of Toronto and has taught political economy at Carleton University.

Director, Institute for Science, Society and Policy, University of Ottawa

Monica Gattinger is Director of the Institute for Science, Society and Policy, Founding Chair of Positive Energy, and Full Professor at the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa. Dr. Gattinger is an award-winning researcher and highly sought-after speaker, strategic adviser and media commentator in the energy sector. Her innovative research programme convenes business, government, Indigenous, civil society and academic leaders to address complex policy, regulatory and governance challenges. Gattinger is Fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, board member of the Clean Resource Innovation Network, and serves on advisory committees for Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator, the National Research Council Canada, the Ontario Energy Board, the Ottawa Science Policy Network, the University of Calgary and Women in Nuclear Canada. She chaired the Council of Canadian Academies’ Expert Panel on International Science and Technology Partnerships and was a member of the Government of Ontario’s Electrification and Energy Transition Panel. Monica is a columnist for DOB Energy and she received the 2020 Clean50 Award for her thought leadership in the energy sector. She holds a PhD in public policy from Carleton University.

Investor, director, advisor and Chair, CCA Expert Panel on the State of STI in Canada

Ilse Treurnicht’s career spans research and commercialization, venture and impact investing, public policy, and the development of health and cleantech firms. She is managing partner of TwinRiver Capital (an impact investment firm), a general partner at North South Ventures (a health impact fund), chair of the Board of the Public Policy Forum, and a director of the Equality Fund and Zentek.

Ilse was CEO of MaRS Discovery District in Toronto from 2005-2017 as it developed from a nascent organization into a leading urban innovation hub. She joined MaRS from her role as CEO of Primaxis Technology Ventures, a seed stage venture capital firm (1999-2005).

She was chair of the Canadian Task Force on Social Finance (2010). She served on the Government of Canada’s Science, Technology and Innovation Council (2014-2016), Canada’s Advisory Council on Economic Growth (2016-2019), and the Advisory Committee on Open Banking (2018-2021). She currently serves on the Council of Expert Advisors, Biomanufacturing and Life Sciences. She has been a board member and advisor to technology firms, universities, non-profits, and international organizations.

Ilse holds a doctorate in chemistry from Oxford University, which she attended as a Rhodes Scholar, and undergraduate and master’s degrees from Stellenbosch University in South Africa.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, British High Commission in Ottawa

David arrived at the British High Commission in Ottawa as Head of the Science, Energy and Climate Team in August 2022. Prior to appointment, he worked in London on Afghanistan counter-terrorism policy after having served at the British Embassy Kabul until its closure in August 2021.

David joined the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in 2016.  where he joined the Counter Terrorism Department with responsibility for overseeing programming to support foreign governments develop their capability to counter terrorism. In September 2019, David took up a temporary role at the British High Commission in Pretoria leading on Science and Innovation to strengthen the South Africa – United Kingdom relationship including overseeing the Newton Programme and science policy more generally across Africa. In support of the Government’s response to Covid-19 David worked in the Government Office for Science supporting the Government’s Chief Scientific Advisor.

Prior to joining the FCO, David spent six years in the Cabinet Office leading on contingency planning for national emergencies. Before the Cabinet Office, David worked for London’s Metropolitan Police where he’d been since 2004 in a variety of strategic staff roles; as well as volunteering as a Special Constable – a role he continued until 2022. 

Scientific Attaché, Italian Embassy in Ottawa

Costanza Conti, Professor of Numerical Analysis at the University of Florence, has been appointed Scientific Attaché at the Italian Embassy in Ottawa, Canada since January 2023. After graduating in Mathematics at the University of Florence, she obtained a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Naples Federico II in Co-tutele with INSA in Toulouse, France, where she studied for several periods. She has been a visiting scientist at several foreign institutions including Hohenheim Universität in Germany, Tel Aviv University in Israel, Università della Svizzera Italiana in Switzerland, Universität Wien in Austria, and the Universitat de València in Spain. The research activity of Professor Costanza Conti has always been focused on Approximation Theory, Mathematical modeling, Computer Aided Geometric Design, Wavelets and frames method, Mathematical methods in Image and Signal Processing, Splines and Application to Data Analysis.   In collaboration with more than 50 scholars from more than 10 different countries, he has published about 100 scientific articles and has been active internationally. Over the years, she has contributed by invitation to national and international conferences and has organized about 20 scientific events including summer schools, conferences, and workshops in collaboration with leading scholars in the field.  Included on the Editorial Board of international journals of applied mathematics, she often serves as a referee of international projects and journals. In the last few years, she has been dedicated to the coordination and direction of associations and networks of researchers such as the International Association for Mathematics and Computer in Simulation, the Italian Network of Approximation Theory, and the UMI Group Theory of Approximation and Applications. Her present activity as Science Attachèe is to promote all sectors of scientific and technological Italian excellence, to support the advancement of Italian universities, Italian research institutions, and Italian companies operating in advanced science and technology sectors. Science Diplomacy is her present stronger interest and passion.